


Another Familiar Dance

by Meadow Lion (Meadow_Lion)



Category: Three Fugitives (1989)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meadow_Lion/pseuds/Meadow%20Lion
Summary: Staying in one place is a risk; so is taking a next step.





	Another Familiar Dance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galerian_ash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galerian_ash/gifts).



> Although it's a bit sentimental, I hope still to have kept it true to the characters, and I really hope that ASH enjoys it!
> 
> Any mistakes are my own.

"I'm home," Lucas calls, shutting the apartment door behind him. When there's no answer, he heads for the living room, where he finds his partners in crime: both asleep, Ned is sprawled on the couch with his arms encircling Meg, who is curled up on top of him with a notebook clutched in her fists.

Lucas smiles and leans down to brush Meg's hair away from her face so that he can kiss her forehead. Unthinkingly he repeats the gesture with Ned.

"Lucas," Ned mumbles.

Lucas freezes with his fingers still tangled in a lock of Ned's hair and a catch in his throat. It garbles his voice. "Yeah?"

Ned seems to nudge into Lucas' palm for a second while his eyelashes flutter. Lucas snatches back his hand just before Ned fully opens his eyes. Ned glances at Meg and says, softly, to Lucas, "We were working on counting problems. I guess it put us both to sleep."

"Better you than me," Lucas parries, equally softly through his grin. "I'd be out sooner than she was."

"You mean math wasn't your forte? I thought you would've liked numbers."

The tilt of Ned's head toward Meg is all the cue Lucas needs. They've done this dance one way or another too many times to count over the last year. Lucas moves around to lift Meg while Ned gets to his feet, then Lucas resettles her on the couch and sets aside the notebook, and Ned tucks a blanket around her. They both look down fondly before turning in wordless unison to the kitchen.

There Lucas continues the conversation in a normal tone. "School in general wasn't my friend."

"I thought you didn't believe in friends," Ned says, his face behind a cupboard door while he pulls out a box of spaghetti and jars of sauce and herbs. "Pasta okay?"

"Yeah. Might've changed my mind." He ducks his own head into the fridge to look for salad fixings. He's not going to specify what or who made the change.

Ned's smile when they're facing each other again tells Lucas he hasn't kept that secret anyway. "I'm glad. And it's a good thing you're not back at school like I am, then."

Lucas chuckles. Ned works as an assistant in the library at Meg's school, a regular public school, since she's been talking and eating like she should. Lucas spends his days in their small Ontario town's only car repair shop. Another bang-up driving job on Lucas' part had helped free Ned from his own hostage situation and provided them a handful of snatched Canadian money to get them to Lucas' friend in Vancouver. Once they got new identification, Lucas agreed that they'd all be safer sticking together for the time being. They moved from motel to dive hotel to cheap roadside inn across provinces for weeks until they decided to risk staying in one place. The repair gig seemed like useful penance for Lucas' history with cars.

Lucas starts throwing together the salad as Ned gets his pot of water heating. When Lucas is done he mutters, "I'm gonna shower and change."

Ignoring Ned's comment about Lucas being the stinky one now, he detours for clean sweats from his bedroom before climbing into the shower in their shared bathroom. After a quick scrub of the day's oil and grime from his face and body, he grabs blindly for shampoo.

He's holding Ned's bottle.

Lucas starts to swap it for his own. Finds himself sniffing and pouring Ned's into his hand instead.

He stares at it for a second but doesn't let himself think, just rubs it into his hair and rinses quickly. When he towels off, he shakes himself -- like a dog Dr. Horvath would be proud of, Lucas imagines with a snort. The scent and whatever drew him to it are still there.

That "whatever" has been there almost from the beginning, another familiar dance, if Lucas were going to be honest. Sure, he's living a pretty honest life now, aside from their Canadian aliases. It's even a pretty _good_ life. One he doesn't want to screw up.

Especially after he's dressed and back in the kitchen, where the first thing he notices about Ned's outstretched hand isn't the spoon in it but the ring still on it.

Shit. Not like he forgot or anything, but, shit.

Lucas misses Ned's question and only manages a "What?" in reply.

Slurping a little of the sauce, Ned hoists the spoon higher and cups his other hand underneath. "I think I need to spice it up more. Would you come try this?"

"Try it before you spice it up," Lucas repeats doubtfully. He gives Ned a long look then walks closer.

Ned sniffs the air and his eyebrows narrow when Lucas reaches the stove. "Did you use my shampoo?"

"Ran out of mine," Lucas claims gruffly.

"Too bad." There's a funny glint in Ned's eye. "I like how yours smells."

"Like you said, too bad," Lucas echoes. He tries to take the spoon, but Ned keeps hold, and Lucas' hand is wrapped around Ned's around the spoon while they both raise it to Lucas' mouth. Lucas' gaze flashes to that band, reflecting light at him like a beacon.

Ned's focus is steady on his face. And his voice is so, so gentle. "Please?"

Now Lucas wants to close his eyes. He makes himself keep looking back at Ned while pressing his lips where Ned's just were, flicking his tongue into the heated sauce and seeing what he could almost think was even greater warmth in Ned's eyes. He could think, if he leaned in a touch further . . . 

He pulls their hands and the spoon down slowly. Clearing his throat and looking away, he sidesteps. "Basil? It could use some more basil."

Ned lets out a quiet sigh behind him. "Sure, Lucas."

Over his shoulder, he says, "You know, you can call me Dan. Or Danny. My . . . friends could call me that."

"Danny, huh?" Ned's fingers curl around Lucas' elbow and turn him back around. "I could --"

"Daddy?" Meg asks behind them.

They both pivot to her automatically.

"Yes, sweetie?" Ned asks.

Lucas feels Ned's fingers still on his arm, and tugs free.

Meg blinks guilelessly. "Is dinner ready?"

"You betcha," Lucas says, guiding her to their small, circular kitchen table. "You sit, your dad will bring the food, and I'll grab the dishes. You want milk?"

"Yes, please, but can I have chocolate?"

Lucas exchanges an amused glance with Ned. Since they settled into this apartment, Meg has been getting steadily cheekier. He and Ned have admitted to each other how they like that, but no way will they admit it to Meg.

"You can maybe have some chocolate _after_ dinner," Ned says as he carries the bowls of pasta and salad to the table, "but you know that with dinner it's plain milk or water."

"Fine, plain." Meg sticks out her tongue at Ned. All three of them laugh.

Lucas puts out the plates, forks, and drinks. They're all sitting and Lucas is twirling pasta on his fork in a huge ball that makes Meg giggle around her own oversized bite when he notices that Ned is just sitting with his hands folded together.

"Meg," Ned says quietly, then again more loudly, "Meg, I have a question I need to ask you."

Meg finishes chewing and places her fork on her plate. "Okay."

Ned holds up his left hand, the back facing her, and points at it with his right hand. "How would you feel about my taking this off? You know how much your mommy and I loved each other, and I'll never stop loving her --"

"But it's past time," Meg interrupts with her nearly eight years of certainty. "You can love somebody else."

If Lucas didn't know how smart Meg is, he'd think he was imagining the little smile she aimed his way. He does, though, and she is, and his brain may be short-circuiting.

Ned hasn't missed a beat. "I agree. I'm so glad you feel that way, baby."

Just like that, the ring is off Ned's finger and on his placemat, on the side out of Lucas' view. That scrap of metal is sending enormous ripples through Lucas and the life he's -- _they've_ been building.

When he looks up, two pairs of eyes are watching, waiting, both his partners in crime.

His family.

"How about you, Lu -- Danny?" Ned says. "How do you feel?"

For a moment everything is blurry. Then he blinks and it's perfectly clear.

Lucas reaches to his left for Meg's hand and to his right for Ned's, and when they're all intertwined he answers, "I'm home."

~ end ~ 


End file.
